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Despite the tension, calm appears to have returned to the Gombe quarter of Kinshasa, where there were isolated shooting incidents. The gunfire raised fears of a resumption of the clashes between militias tied to vice-president Bemba and president Kabila.

Clashes between fighters loyal to rival presidential candidates in the Democratic Republic of Congo left two civilians dead on Saturday as fresh partial election results showed the gap between the contenders narrowing

William Swing, the UN Special Representative for the Secretary General in the DRC, met Archbishop Monsengwo, the president of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), on Thursday November 9, 2006.
After the meeting Archbishop Monsengwo gave his impressions on the DRC political situation, in an interview granted to MONUC's video unit.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, has retained his lead in new partial results from last month's presidential run-off.The results issued Friday by Congo's electoral commission show Mr. Kabila with nearly 61 percent of the vote. The figures show Vice President and former rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba trailing with nearly 40 percent.

Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague began hearing evidence for the first time, as prosecutors began laying out their case against a Congolese militia leader. Thomas Lubanga is accused of recruiting children to fight a brutal war in the northeast of the country. For VOA, Lauren Comiteau is following the confirmation proceedings and has more from Amsterdam.

The main opposition coalition in the Democratic Republic of Congo says it has found evidence of cheating in the election vote count.The Union for the Nation Coalition, which backs former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, says its vote count differs from partial results released this week by the electoral commission.

Congolese presidential contenders Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba have met in the capital, Kinshasa, in a bid to ensure that calm prevails when the results of the run-off election are announced, a spokesman for Kabila said on Wednesday.

The Ambassador of the United States in the DRC, Roger Meece, talks about the US sanctions against violators of the arms embargo and against those recruiting child soldiers and takes stock of the electoral process.

In a press release dated 6 November 2006, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) informed that the results from 35,542 out of 50,045 polling and counting stations have been collected, that is 71% of the total.